August 13, 2008
The Passionate English Club
Harouna Sawadogo is the friendly owner of the Djibo Supermarket.
It's not really a Supermarket, at least not in the Tesco's sense - the lights aren't bright, aisles aren't wide and the smell of freshly baked bread is conspicuous by its absence. I think what gives Harouna's place its supermarché tag is that you can actually walk into it, as opposed to standing outside and pointing at what you want.
Harouna likes speaking English, and has the greeting sequence down to a tee, asking after my health, family, cows and so on in the clipped tones of the World Service. His mistakes are more contextual than grammatical - one day I arrived at the counter with my pasta and orange juice and Harouna barked 'You owe me 2,000 CFA' to which I replied 'No I don't'. Further discussion revealed that he was not trying to collect an outstanding debt but simply asking for payment for the pasta-and-orange-juice I was holding.
Anyway, Charlie and I were in the supermarket yesterday and Harouna told us about an English Club which he is starting up. He invited us to the inaugural meeting that afternoon. Charlie couldn't make it, but I went along out of curiosity.
There were eight men and two women at the English Club, and all the proceedings were in French. We spent most of the meeting discussing a suitable name for the club. 'Djibo English Club' was dismissed as too restricting and 'Apple Pie English Club' as too weird. We were going nowhere fast when Harouna said 'We're all passionate about learning English so let's call it the 'Passionate English Club'! The suggestion was greeted with universal approval, and was all set to be carved in stone in the club's Règlement Intérieur when someone asked for my thoughts about the name. Well, I had to be honest, didn't I, admitting that the 'Passionate English Club' might have potentially confusing nuances.
If only I had kept my mouth shut. The name eventually chosen was 'Independent English Club'. Out with the soulful Alexander McCall-Smith-like name and in with the brutally non-committal IEC. We went on to elect a committee (President, Secretary, Treasurer etc) and I found myself in the role of Conseil Technique which obliges the incumbent to teach the club a fully-blown English course. 'I don't have time for that!' I protested, so the nature of the role was changed - now the Conseil Technique just has to correct any grammatical mistakes which pop up during the club's meetings.
When the inaugural meeting of the Independent English Club finally came to a close, the Secrétaire Générale announced that we could now feel free to start speaking English if we so wished. We stood up and circulated and shook hands and mumbled to each other 'See you next time'. And everyone said it perfectly, so the Conseil Technique will just have to hold his fire.
August 12, 2008
Launch of Sophie and the Pancake Plot
Well, Sophie and the Pancake Plot is now in the bookshops, so feel free to boost the sales by picking up a copy or two for nephews/nieces! Albino Camel sold well, but Locust Curse was something of a lame duck, so hopefully Pancake Plot will get the series back on track.
The feedback so far has been encouraging, anyway. According to this reviewer, Sophie and the Pancake Plot is "almost Kiplingesque in its humour and writing style". Hmm. This is the third time a reviewer has used the adjective Kiplingesque to describe my books or poems, and I confess to being pleased but baffled. The only things I have read by Kipling are a couple of 'Just So Stories' and the Poem 'If'. No, not even Kim (blush). Not even Jungle Book (double blush). Perhaps I should get hold of a Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling and see whether or not being Kiplingesque is something to be desired!
July 24, 2008
Painful Eyebrows
Almost every market day from October last year to June this year, Harouna and I would go off to the cattle market and sit down on a straw mat with a pile of cassettes and a pile of books. We shared the good news of Jesus with passers-by, sold a few gospels and choked on the dust kicked up by errant cows and garibous. But as of last week, we have relocated to a brand new place in the main market (cue fanfare). We're very pleased with this. It's a proper shop made out of proper cement bricks, next-door to a shop that sells fake designer jeans and opposite a shop that sells tea-leaves and Timbuktu dates.
We've stocked up on copies of Linjila Lukka (The Gospel of Luke) and Banndi Suleymana (Proverbs) and will be selling them at an 80% loss, as always, so we're hoping business will be brisk. If you have a moment next Wednesday morning, please pray that people find the shop! There has been so much re-shuffling of the various market-stalls recently that no one knows what's where any more. Pray also for Harouna and me as we communicate God's love to the people of Djibo.
The other highlight of the past month was being able to buy a used car in Ouagadougou. It's a green pick-up truck and it will be perfect for bush-trips and city-breaks alike. Unfortunately, the cylinder-head cracked on our first journey up to Djibo, toasting the entire engine. It looks like it's going to be some time before it'll be fixed. What was it Dick Dastardly's dog used to say? Rassum frassum...
A big thank you to all those who contributed to the Tuareg refugee aid effort. We have done two distributions to date, and when they run out of food again we'll do a third.
Some of you have asked how the 'Teaching Fulfulde to Mossi Christians' thing is going. Pretty well, over all. We did ten weeks of classes before breaking up for the summer hols, and during that time some good progress was made. The most memorable moment was an improvised role-play between the local pharmacist (played by himself) and a man with 'a painful eyebrow' (played by local comedian Buina). The role-play went well off-piste but explored some interesting areas of vocabulary on the way.* We'll be starting up again in September.
Rainy season has begun. Charlie has been going out to the fields with Dikoore to sow beans and peanuts. She posted a newsletter on her blog today, with this hilarious account of her agricultural exploits.
And in other news: on 7 August, the third Sophie book comes out. It's called Sophie and the Pancake Plot. Recommended reading age, eight to eighty.
Love to you and your families,
Steve
* If you ever need to say 'My eyebrow hurts' in Fulfulde, the phrase you need is 'Waywayko am na naawa!'
